UCLA Engineers Show New Path to Make Glass as Tough as Metal

Through new atomic-level computer simulations, UCLA engineers have opened a path toward developing stronger and tougher glass that can be more ductile than the existing kind.

In a study published in Materials Horizons this past February, the researchers from UCLA and other organizations identified the microscopic reasons that made disordered materials – whose atomic structures are not as perfectly aligned as those of crystals — either brittle and therefore easy to shatter such as glass, or more ductile like steel. This is a significant new finding since brittleness is the main drawback of glass. Read the full article here (external link).